A few weeks on from his first Grand Prix win as Purple Bull’s workforce boss, Laurent Mekies celebrated one other due to the “untouchable” Max Verstappen’s managed drive to the highest step of the rostrum in Azerbaijan.
After an eight-round run with out a triumph – not together with Verstappen’s Dash success in Belgium – Purple Bull returned to profitable methods on the Italian Grand Prix with an emphatic show from the four-time World Champion.
Many within the paddock have been curious to see if Purple Bull might carry that kind over to the streets of Baku and, on a very dramatic weekend, Verstappen stayed away from hassle to make it back-to-back pole positions and race wins.
With McLaren experiencing a tough occasion due to Oscar Piastri crashing out of Qualifying and the race and Lando Norris solely ending seventh, Verstappen has now closed to within 69 points of the championship lead.
Talking on F1 TV’s post-race present, Mekies mentioned of Verstappen’s efficiency: “That was actually such a powerful demonstration he has achieved once more, two weeks after Monza.
“Coming right here, the super-difficult circumstances in Qualifying, not understanding very a lot what to anticipate right now by way of race tempo… No one had achieved any lengthy runs on the medium or on the onerous [tyres].
“He simply took it step-by-step, he simply pulled away tenth after tenth, and he appeared untouchable. Clearly it made all the things fairly a bit simpler.”
Mekies added that Verstappen’s brace of victories, combined with Tsunoda’s stable P6 end on Sunday, seem to point out that the workforce have made some breakthroughs with their RB21 challenger – in what has been an up-and-down season to this point.
“It’s additionally an excellent signal for the automobile,” he commented, following on from recent updates and a shift in engineering approach. “Yuki was additionally quick, a number of tenths away from Max, and bringing house some good factors – his finest race, I believe, for us.
“We all know this observe continues to be very particular… it’s not Monza, nevertheless it’s nonetheless low-downforce, it’s nonetheless the very low-speed corners. However [it] confirms in these kind of conditions we now have unlocked one thing.
“We’re equally aware that we go into the remainder of the season with very totally different tracks, however will probably be check for all of us as a workforce.”
With that in thoughts, Mekies is eager to see what unfolds on the upcoming Singapore Grand Prix – a race Purple Bull final received with Sergio Perez in 2022 and earlier than that with Sebastian Vettel again in 2013.
“We take it step-by-step,” he mentioned. “We consider ourselves, we strive to have a look at what’s limiting us, tips on how to unlock it… that’s what the blokes have been so good to do each [at the factory] in Milton Keynes and right here on the race observe.
“It labored right here, it labored at Monza. The equation in Singapore will probably be fully totally different. We all know it’s again to the very, very excessive downforce, and tracks we now have been struggling [at] a little bit bit extra, increased temperatures. So, we’ll see.
“We give attention to attempting to enhance step-by-step the automobile. Even when the laws are fully totally different subsequent 12 months, growing our understanding of what’s limiting us has worth, and therefore we’re taking it as severely as we will.”
Whereas Verstappen has boosted his exterior title probabilities, Purple Bull stay within the hunt for second in the Teams’ Championship – their tally of 272 factors evaluating to Ferrari’s 286 and Mercedes’ 290.
